Why Women White-ant Themselves Out Of Securing A Property – And How To Turn It Around

I’ve done it. Saved my butt off for twenty years and then when I finally had enough for a house deposit, my position was made redundant and I talked myself out of buying and securing a property ‘until I found another stable job’.

That stable job never came along. Instead, I chose the unstable path of freelancing and passionately writing for Frankixo.com*. That was five years ago, and I’ve watched my house deposit shrink, and shrink, and shrink. And let’s not forget, I’ve watched Sydney house prices rise by 10%+ year on year.

So when Elaine Davies, Principal and Founder of New Road Property and author of Mind Body Sold! offered to share her opinion on why women white-ant themselves out of securing a property – and how to turn it around – I was keen as beans to hear it.

And you should too. Because sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I wish I read this five years ago.

“While most people do not link feminist activism with buying a home or an investment property or two – it’s actually the most important thing a woman can do for herself. Why? Because it provides the most basic of human needs – shelter along with economic security. It is also blind to the gender pay gap. A property doesn’t come up approximately 16% less just because a woman owns it! Yet many, many women turn away from buying a property, believing it’s out of their reach. Even worse they put their financial future on hold, patiently waiting for their life partner to appear, so that they can live happily ever after together.

“STOP thinking that way! Women have been conditioned for years to never ‘date down’ but ‘up’ so at the back of any woman’s mind is the thought – ‘what if I have a property and he doesn’t?’. ‘Will he still like me?’. The answer is ‘Who cares?’ Thinking that way won’t only white-ant your future but also your happiness. Also, research now shows that the good guys love a woman who’s happily living her life.

“For centuries, scholars have debated what exactly makes us happy. Two large studies by psychologist Talya Miron-Shatz of Princeton University, found that women are less satisfied with life when they stress over making ends meet and securing enough funds for retirement. The key to happiness, she learned was financial security. Our own Wollongong University found, in a 2012 study, that when money is used to satisfy basic physiological needs it increases life satisfaction. While it may be obvious to many of us, the study points out that while money can buy satisfaction, interestingly, when it ensures that our higher-order needs are met – things like safety and social needs – it can also buy happiness.

“If it’s known that financial security brings peace of mind, why weren’t we taught to take better financial care of ourselves in school? Why, from the second we joined the workforce, aren’t we encouraged to save and invest to help build a beautiful life in our later years? On the contrary, many of us were bought up in ‘nice families’ where ‘dirty’ money’ wasn’t discussed (especially by the women in the family) or was even frowned upon. Often, it’s not that our loved ones don’t want us to succeed, it’s that they don’t want us to fail and, in an effort to protect us, discourage us from trying at all. Yet, as Scottish comedian Billy Connolly once said, ‘I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, and I know which one is best.’

As I am passionate about helping women become financially secure, I have written a book called Mind Body Sold! about building wealth through property investment. It’s about property because I have years of experience first as a real estate agent and now as a buyer’s agent and founder of New Road Property but the investment principals and buying process can be applied to anything. I give a lot of really important behind the scenes tips but I also give mindset ones because people and especially women need to get into the right mindset to invest. They need to unlearn all the negative conditioning they have gone through since birth – negative thinking that persists even in these #metoo times.

“This mindset aspect of my book draws on the ‘other me’, in addition to being a seasoned property expert, I am also a well-known ‘mindset’ expert. I have published books and many articles on the subject and was a TV panellist so the first half of my book very much encourages women to get into the right frame of mind to buy a property.

You will learn:

The MENTAL strategies needed to buy a property or build a property portfolio. I provide real solutions to create a positive, goal reaching mindset. Remember always learn to think big, then bigger and then bigger again. I explain how to get mentally strong for the task and change negative thought patterns through a range of techniques including MEDITATION, VISUALISATION and GOAL SETTING. I advise you on getting your own cheer squad on board to make sure you keep on track and educate yourself by reading and researching.

100 plus tips and tricks to outwit the real estate agent, auctioneer and everyone in between. I include plenty of heartening real-life property success stories.

I also give the low down on how to pick the right property – not all are created equal – what exactly to pay for your chosen property (yes there is a mathematical formula), the type of mortgage you should be looking for, when you should pick a conveyancer over a solicitor and visa versa and how NOT to play into a real estate agents hands at an auction.

Most of all I give ALL the tools to help women stop white-anting themselves when it comes to buying property and building their wealth, not for the sake of it but for the simple reason, it will make you happy.

Mind Body Sold! is available to download or purchase as a hard copy on Amazon.com

To find out more about Mind Body Sold!, Elaine Davies and how New Road Property can help you, visit New Road Property

* I chose this path because it also enabled me to drop my son at school and pick him up, which was was something I could not do when I worked 9-5.30, so all is not lost!